INSIGHT SD-WAN
“All technology has a lifespan and it seems MPLS has entered the winter of its particular lifespan;
this is largely due to SD-WAN.” Anthony Senter, MD of SDWAN Solutions
SD-When?
The benefi ts of SD-WAN are far reaching but with an economy in question and a pandemic which is lingering is
this a market still ripe for partners to take on?
SD-WAN has been touted
as the natural successor
to MPLS but as we look
around the globe you
could be forgiven thinking
that MPLS still has a future.
In certain geographies telcos
are looking to protect MPLS
revenues and actively delaying
bringing SD-WAN propositions
to market. Rightly or wrongly
we asked the market where
this leaves the technology that
promises so much?
Anthony Senter, MD of
SDWAN Solutions said, “All
technology has a lifespan and
it seems MPLS has entered the
winter of its particular lifespan;
this is largely due to SD-WAN.
We will see a sharp decline
of MPLS adoption, likewise
probably a similar decline in
its price as its perceived value
defaults. ere is however, no
getting away from the fact that
MPLS has long been costly and
clunky – SD-WAN o ers vastly
improved technology, is faster,
smarter and more cost e ective,
and, as innovation leaders in
the SD-WAN arena seek to
reduce the price of SD-WAN,
it will follow that more and
more companies will choose
SD-WAN over MPLS. e only
blocker to that is that those
companies who perhaps only
relatively recently implemented
MPLS may be su ering from
‘adoption fatigue’ and have
their eye rmly on post-
COVID crisis initiatives rather
than re-teching projects. Many
of our customers with hybrid
MPLS and Internet SD-WAN
solutions are amazed to see their
tra c being sent mostly down
the Internet links rather than
MPLS due to better latency,
even in central London. e
dependence on a single provider
is also removed (reference to the
recent BT outage that also took
down Vodafone).”
Martin Saunders, Product
Director at Highlight
commented “One technology
does not replace the other,
they complement each other.
e focus for the
channel should
not be about
the technology,
but rather
building their
understanding
about the speci c
needs of each
customer and
delivering the
most suitable
services.
Whilst
homeworking
is a perfect t
for SD-WAN,
vendors are
currently
racing to get
their services
t for this new
distributed work
force. Otherwise,
businesses with lots
of sites are a prime
target for SDWAN.
Ollie
Wallington,
Senior Business
Development
Manager, Wireless
Logic added
“MPLS still plays
a role within
SD-WAN
currently. SDWAN
is more
of an overlay
service that
still relies on
di erent forms
of communication (i.e. MPLS,
internet, etc.), so they can still
very much work in parallel
together. at said, SD-WAN
simpli es the management and
operation of a WAN, so it could
perhaps in time cause a decline
in the need for MPLS, as other
sites use SD-WAN with a public
internet connection.
“SD-WAN is ideal for
distributed businesses with
multi-site deployments / wide
area networks that are looking
to o er a secure bearer agnostic
solution, including 4G, which is
ideal for rapid deployment.
We have seen larger project
deployments in the likes of
retail (for example, a 450-site
deployment across the UK
for one retailer, and a 550-
site deployment for another),
typically where the 4G element
is being used in a failover
scenario or as an interim
primary connection.”
What kinds of businesses are
now able to take advantage of
SD-WAN?
Anthony Senter, MD of
Anthony Senter, MD
of SDWAN Solutions
SDWAN Solutions commented
“Any and all, in a nutshell.
It’s important to understand
that just as one business model
does not suit all sectors that
one SD-WAN o ering will not
suit all businesses any better.
Retail and much of the High
Street hospitality sector have
consumer-based requirements
such as guest wi and POS for
example, whilst manufacturing
have entirely di erent needs. All
markets and sectors will bene t
should they adopt SD-WAN
technologies, how much they
bene t remains dependent
on the speci c solution being
tailored to their needs. In fact
the entire SD-WAN sector will
bene t reputationally from
taking a tailored approach –
no one likes to be considered
‘standard’, ‘average’, ‘normal’;
businesses are like people and
communities – each one is
di erent and individual and
must be treated as such with
true and tailored SD-WAN.”
Martin Saunders, Product
Director at Highlight
38 | Comms Business Magazine | August 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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